Opening Weekend vs. Northeastern, CSUN The UCLA women’s soccer team opens the 2013 season on Friday, Aug. 23 vs. Northeastern at 6 pm, followed by a Sunday, Aug. 25 game vs. Cal State Northridge, also at 6 pm. Both games will take place at Drake Stadium and will be televised live on Pac-12 Networks. UCLABruins.com will also have live audio broadcasts for both games, with John Ramey and Erin Cole providing the call.

Tickets are available at the UCLA Central Ticket Office online at uclabruins.com/tickets or by phone at 310-UCLA-WIN (310-825-2946). Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for youth ages 3-16. UCLA students are free with Bruin Card. For both games this weekend, fans who like the UCLA Athletics Facebook page or follow @UCLAAthletics on Twitter can receive two free admissions.

In the Rankings After going 18-3-2 and reaching the NCAA quarterfinals in 2012, the Bruins open the season ranked No. 3 by Soccer America, No. 4 by Top Drawer Soccer and No. 5 by the NSCAA.

Scouting the Opponents Northeastern finished with a record of 9-9-1 in 2012 and returns eight players who started at least 10 games last year, including senior midfielder Hanna Terry, who was named to the 2013 preseason All-CAA team. Terry, who started all 19 games a year ago, was a first-team All-CAA honoree in 2012 and ranked fourth on the team in scoring with nine points. This will be UCLA’s first-ever matchup against the Huskies.

Cal State Northridge won the Big West Tournament a year ago to earn its first-ever NCAA Tournament berth. The Matadors return 17 letterwinners from a 2012 squad that finished 11-5-6 overall and captured the program’s first Big West Championship and NCAA Tournament berth. Three-year team captain Chloe McDaniel is a preseason All-Big West selection and was the 2012 Big West Defensive Player of the Year.

Amanda Cromwell Era Begins The 2013 season marks Amanda Cromwell’s first year at the helm of the UCLA women’s soccer program. Cromwell, the fifth head coach in UCLA women’s soccer history, came to the Bruins after 14 years in the same position at the University of Central Florida. From 1999-2012, she guided the Knights to a 203-83-26 record, 11 NCAA Tournament appearances, four Atlantic Sun Tournament championships, four Conference USA regular-season titles and the 2012 C-USA tournament title. Cromwell’s Knights made a NCAA Elite Eight run in 2011 that included a defeat of North Carolina in the third round.

With 224 career victories and a .681 winning percentage at the close of the 2012 season, Cromwell currently ranks among the top-25 winningest active coaches and the top-30 all-time winningest coaches in NCAA history.

Veteran Group Leads Bruins UCLA’s upperclassmen are about as experienced a group as you can get, with a combined total of 480 games played and 344 games started between the 14 of them. Senior Jenna Richmond leads all current Bruins with 65 games played and 64 starts. Junior Abby Dahlkemper has started and played in every game in her Bruin career (44 games).

Preseason Pac-12 Favorites UCLA was selected as the preseason favorites to win the Pac-12 in a vote by conference coaches. The Bruins received seven first-place votes and 117 points overall in the Pac-12 preseason poll to edge out four-time defending conference champion Stanford, which received five first-place votes and 115 points.

Dahlkemper on Watch List Junior defender Abby Dahlkemper has been selected to the MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List for the second consecutive season. Dahlkemper earned NSCAA second-team All-America and first-team All-Pacific Region honors in 2012 after leading UCLA’s defense to a Pac-12 leading 14 shutouts and a team goals against average of just 0.55. Dahlkemper was a starter in all 23 of UCLA’s games and ranked second on the team in minutes played, seeing a total of 2,016 of a possible 2,120 minutes. She also contributed offensively, recording three goals, including game-winners against UMass and Fresno State, and added three assists. She was twice named the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week (Aug. 20-27 and Oct. 1-7) and was also selected to the Soccer America Team of the Week for Aug. 20-27.

Bruins Bestowed Preseason Honors Bruin players have been making regular appearances as preseason honors have been rolling in. Along with the MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List, Abby Dahlkemper was named to the Soccer America preseason All-America team and to Top Drawer Soccer’s preseason Best XI second team. Junior midfielder Sarah Killion earned first-team acclaim on Top Drawer Soccer’s Best XI team, and junior midfielder Sam Mewis was a third-team selection by Top Drawer Soccer.

Three Bruins Win W-League Title UCLA juniors Caprice Dydasco, Abby Dahlkemper and Sarah Killion helped lead the Pali Blues to the 2013 W-League title. The championship was the Blues’ third in the franchise’s six years of existence

Season Openers UCLA is 14-5-1 all-time in season openers, including the last three consecutive openers. The last time UCLA opened the season at home was 2010, when the Bruins defeated Cal Poly, 7-0. Friday’s game marks only the seventh time UCLA has opened the season at home.

Bruins Take on Challenging Schedule UCLA has the most challenging non-conference schedule and the second-most challenging overall schedule in the nation, according to All White Kit. The Bruins will meet up with each of the Top 3 teams in Top Drawer Soccer’s poll, with road matches against No. 1 North Carolina (in Durham), No. 2 Stanford and No. 3 Notre Dame. UCLA also faces No. 8 Duke, No. 21 San Diego State and No. 24 California.

Twelve Games on Pac-12 Networks Twelve UCLA regular-season women’s soccer games will be televised by the Pac-12 Networks in 2013, which is airing 58 live women’s soccer games this year. The Bruins will have the first two live games on the Networks this season - Friday, Aug. 23 vs. Northeastern at 6 pm and Sunday, Aug. 25 vs. Cal State Northridge at 6 pm. UCLA and Stanford are tied with the most appearances on the Networks with 12 apiece.

Get Mew’s Views Junior midfielder Sam Mewis is penning a blog for UCLABruins.com. Get her inside stories about the 2013 Bruins every Thursday with Mew's Views.